Maximising enrolment of students need of the hour: Rosaiah

Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah today said that to keep a check on school and college dropouts and maximising enrolment of students is the need of the hour.
Urging NGOs and educational institutions to work in close coordination with the district administration to bring down the dropout rates, he said, "imparting mere education will not suffice and involving students in sports and extra-curricular activities will help in developing leadership qualities.
He was speaking after laying foundation stone for the Golden Jubilee Block at K Rangasamy Naidu Higher Sec. School at Periyanaickenpalayam, some 25 km from here.
Stating that State and Central Governments have education of the citizens as their prime agenda, he said that the initiatives taken by the Tamil Nadu Government to upgrade middle and high schools as a part of its Vision 2020 strategic plan will take the State to a greater height in the field of education.

He expressed happiness that Tamil Nadu was acknowledged among most literate States in India with a male literacy rate of 86.8 per cent and female literacy at 73.9 per cent as against the national average of 82.14 and 65.46 per cent respectively.
R Lakshmipathy, Chairman, Press Trust of India and publisher of Tamil daily Dinamalar, in his keynote address, lamented on the state of education and the way it was being made business and commercialised.

Stating that he was also running an educational institution near Madurai in his parents' name, Lakshmipathy said it was not taking any capitation fee and every money taken from the student was on receipts.

Moreover, "we (Dinamalar) are preaching a lot of things concerning the public and are implementing them in letter and spirit," he said, adding, "what we preach we want to practice."
"The way the education is being commercialised, the future is a question mark," Lakshmipathy said.